Books

The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II By Ilaria Dagnini Brey • TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845–1945 Edited by Alison Nordström and Thomas Padon • Peter Henry Emerson and American Naturalistic Photography By Christian A. Peterson • Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World’s Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants Photographs by Jonathan Singer; Text by W. John Kress and Marc Hachadourian • and more

Museums are exhibiting an increased sensitivity to collecting and presenting works by women— through new acquisitions, solo shows, and a stronger focus on artists who were previously neglected. But true gender equality, critics maintain, remains elusive. Read More

Marina Abramović’s performances, feats of endurance involving self-denial and even self-mutilation, are so influential that MoMA has asked 35 artists to re-create them for an upcoming retrospective—and so provocative that it is building a separate entrance for the show. Read More